528 JlEMARKS ON THE FOREGOING* 



eiteem can in no wife be problematical. Therefore, 

 without farther preface, I proceed to the matter in 

 queftion. 



The maxim efrablifhed in the general chapter of the 

 jefuits, wherein father Lainetz was elected the firft fuc~ 

 cefTor of faint Ignatius Loyola, <c to inculcate a theo- 

 logy adapted to the times," is, as I conceive, a maxim 

 perfectly innocent in itfelf, and even laudable. Inaf- 

 much, indeed, as it is very indeterminate, it may be 

 liable to the private interpretation, which the . author 

 of the animadverfions, fomewhat categorically, attri- 

 butes to it ; though it is by no means of like import 

 with the other proportion, viz. ct to chufe the politi- 

 cal and moral revolutions that arife among mankind 

 from fenfuality and felf-intereft, for the rule of reli- 

 gion." Whether or not the jefuits have done fo, is 

 another queftion, to the rifting whereof I feel no in- 

 ward vocation : fuffice, that the maxim before us, 

 neither enjoins nor juftifles it. And is it not, after all, 

 the very fame that the moft learned and enlightened of 

 the proteftant divines have adopted and purfued in la- 

 ter times ? Theology is a fpecies of doctrine, wherein 

 very much, at leail, depends on method and mode of 

 reprefentation. Both of thefe change with the times. 

 Enlightened times, more cultivated men, other infti- 

 tutions,. relations, fituations, and wants, render it even 

 abfolutely neceflary to teach a theology adapted to the 

 • times ; if moreover the teachers make it a point with 

 them, (and the jefuits made it a very material point,) 

 to erTecl any good by it. I think then that, on account 

 of this resolution, which does honour to their under- 

 Handing and their knowledge of the world, they are 



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